Fairlands Valley 50km Challenge and other such things...

I have neglected my blogging of late reasons being the past couple of months have been in essence pretty redundant in terms of having anything worth while saying!

Looking over the past few weeks it has been a mixed bag for us all in terms of training, commitment and injuries.

I'll start with the positive achievements of Dave and JK.
July 15th was the day of our planned 50km challenge around the Hertfordshire area of the UK. JK was battling with some form of man flu and to his credit he completed in excess of the 30 mile course. Not wanting to blame anyone (Dave), but we took a wrong turn on our map and ended up doing an extra two 3 miles...not what you want on a 50km run!

It continues to amaze me how JK and Dave have the mental discipline to keep going on our runs regardless of how much discomfort and pain they may be in. I have tried to learn from this since the start of our training together back in February this year.............I am not there yet and this race put things back into focus.

We were going around the course comfortably and thought we were at the 18 mile mark come our next check point. I was feeling good, happy that I had gotten this far as I had just come back from a hamstring injury. I had set myself a minimum target of 18-20 miles for this run to get me back into the swing of things you see.

What we found at the check point was that it was in fact only mile 12.....doh!
I am not kidding you - my whole positive mentality just evaporated in an instant. Legs started to ache, back was tight, pains down both legs...... what on earth was going on!

JK had a "pep" talk with me the week after where he said you could tell by the look on my face that I was done.

At the 17 mile check point I was all but spent. Following that check point I couldn't run as the pains in my legs were very uncomfortable and didn't have it in me to push through that to pick my legs up. In the end I frog marched to the 20 mile check point where I ended my race.

Recently I have started to pick up the training that I am doing on my own in an effort to focus my mind to get me in the best shape I can going into the event. I am honest enough to say that I am some way off where I thought I would be at this stage.
What I have found helpful is going to a local running club of a Tuesday night where the goal is purely about interval training. The effort level involved in the group JK and I run in is intense! the latest session pushed me all the way to my limits. I am definitely feeling the benefits within my body and this has pushed up both my confidence and motivation leading up to the Transalpine....in 25 days time!!!!


You may have noticed that I have only mentioned the three of us for this event, where before there has always been the four of us.

Staff is continuing to recover from a knee injury he sustained on his birthday at the end of June. My next blog post will give you an update as to what is going on with his hopes of being fit enough to be at this years Transalpine run.

Heart Research Charity drive - Nick

Hello!! (I hope you can make the time to read this AND PASS THIS ON TO FRIENDS, FAMILY AND AROUND YOUR PLACES OF WORK)

As you may know by now due to my blog, facebook and twitter (@PTNickyC) postings that myself and a few friends are competing in an event this year which will take us 208 miles through the alps of Germany, Austria and Italy.......oh and we're running it!! 

It's called the Transalpine event http://www.transalpine-run.com/alps_cross_start.htm , staged over 8 days, completing in essence a marathon each day........I bet you're thinking that sounds fun right?!! haha

We're down to the nuts and bolts of our preparation now as we're down to the last 25 days until the start of this mammoth task.

We weren't originally going to raise funds for chairty as we're doing this event entirey for our own "fun", yet it became apparent quite quickly that the one thing people kept asking us other than 'are you mad?' was in fact 'who are you rising money for?'
Aside from this charity page that I have set up, we also have one set up to sponsor the BHF (British Heart Foundation). So you may be thinking why is it that I have choosen Heart Research UK as well?

Here's my answer :-)
The people that know me well, know that I lost my Dad back in 2005. Reason being due to heart failure (cardiomyopathy).

During his care he had what is know as an LVAD (left ventricluar assist device) implanted into his body. This is a machine that is inserted internally allowing the blood flow that normally goes through your heart to be rerouted to go through the LVAD. The aim of this machine is to allow the heart to rest and possibly start to show signs of recovery within the affected areas of the heart. 

If you have never seen this device attached to a person you don't quite get the full scope of what it is and the impact it has on a persons life, albeit trying to prolong it. The machines power source comes from either a machine you plug into the mains at home or by battery packs you're to wear.

In order to do this a drive line had to come from the LVAD and out through the abdominal wall of my Dad. It's a very invasive piece of kit to have but on the other side of the coin it is a genius piece of engineering.

The LVAD gave me the opportunity to spend precious moments with my Dad that I will always remember and be grateful for.

He showed immense strength of mind, body and character when he was going through his treatment, which is something I can only hope to emmulate come September 1st-8th during my event.

This continuing research will give other people and their families in the situation that Dad and my family were in, the opportunity to not only prolong their lives in the short term but make a full recovery.

Sadly I can't have this for my Dad but hold comfort in knowing that it could be possible for others.

If you are gracious enough to donate to this cause I would be truely thankful.

This has already been an emotionally and physically tough journey that I have embarked on. I have been a mess at times through this training but if my efforts and your generosity can help someone then it is all worth it in the end. 

 

Nick    http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/NickCollinsHRUK

xx

Below I have added what any money raised from this would be going to.

Harefield Heart Science Centre

Dr Paul Barton, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London

 

Heart failure recovery

The research team at Harefield Hospital has developed a new treatment whereby patients on LVAD support also received heart failure therapy drugs – drugs that would normally not be given at this stage of the disease. This has led them to find that with the right drug combination certain groups of patients actually get better. Over two-thirds of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy who were enrolled into the programme responded well to the therapy. Over time their hearts started to work well again and following treatment it was possible to remove the LVAD and for them to return to normal life.

 

Little is known about how recovery of the heart occurs in these patients. In order to understand more, the team has been studying samples taken from the heart when the LVAD is implanted and other samples taken after treatment. They found a number of changes in gene activity which may contribute to the recovery process. However, a key question which remains is why certain patients respond well to treatment while others, with the same signs and symptoms, do not and still need a transplant. This project aims to directly address this question by using state-of-the-art gene expression analysis tools to look for differences in the molecular make up of the hearts of patients in these two groups. It is thought that identifying such differences will lead to a better understanding of heart failure. This will pave the way for tests to determine which patients are likely to recover and should therefore be considered for these pumps earlier.  Also, the findings may contribute to the development of future drug treatments to reverse heart failure

Please view my donation page to assist the ongoing research into heart failure through Heart Research UK

My page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/NickCollinsHRUK

Injury update - Nick

Of all the things to mess my legs up, I didn't think it would be cricket!

On Wednesday 27th June my brother (Paul) and I met up in the morning to do some interval sprint training which whilst being harder than I imagined went pretty well.
The evening of that day I agreed to play in a cricket match playing for Paul's work team against the firm my Dad used to play for.

I batted like a seasoned pro...... ok slight exaggeration! yet I was 28 not out by which time you had to switch batters when they reached 25. I hit a nice four on my last scoring ball. As we went into the fielding I was sprinting around gathering up the balls full of enthusiasm! That was until near the end of the game I chased down a ball only for my right hamstring to pop and crunch followed by the all too familiar stabbing muscle pain. In truth I was slightly embarrassed by this as I am supposed to be the fittest and strongest there!! There was much delight in taking the piss out of me by my opponents and team mates....... got to love that! haha

Since then I have had to stop my running to let the leg heal up. What's frustrating is this has happened at a time when we're just over a week away from our first 50km event in preparation for the T-alp.

I have to admit that my training even before this set back has dwindled somewhat since the good weekend we had in the lakes. This is purely down to my own mindset - in a way I keep thinking I have plenty of time until our main event but in reality I have hardly any time at all. September 1st is coming up very quickly indeed and coupled with this lame injury it has reinforced the fact that I had best get out there and become and act like a serious ultra endurance athlete.

JK is always on at me saying 'when will you learn?'............. I believe I just have.
I know with how I feel that I am not in very good shape leading into the 50km event on 15th July so will have to make sure that I have my mind right leading up to it.
Tonight (6th July), I am going out for a shortish and gentle run to test out the injury in the lead up to getting back to the Ivinghoe Beacons this weekend for what I have been told is a 24-26 miler....running gods help me!!

In other injury news, my direct team mate for the event aka Staff had his birthday the weekend past and just happened to dislocate his knee............... looking good aren't we!!!  Team 'NoseAttack' as we are known are somewhat on the back foot at the moment.

Nick

Sports Taping

For those of you that are into football/soccer, you may have noticed in Euro 2012 that some of the players have been wearing some form of kinesiology/sports tape.

Now this isn't a new practice but looking at the sporting world as a whole, it is sure to be more common amoung amateur athletes- us runners are no exception. 

I have been in contact recently with two competing taping brands via Twitter of all things. I do find Twitter a great playform to interact with companies and like minded people.

so the two sports tape brands! ...... Rocktape and Sporttape. 

I have to say the communication with both brands has been first class. Any and all questions I had for them were answered quickly and with the detail I wanted. 

In the case of Rocktape I had the medical director email me out of the blue. He came across very passionate about his product with the belief that its the best on the market.

I personally love it when you meet/speak to people that care about what they do, I like to believe I'm the same when it comes to my work. My clients put their trust in me to get them the results they're after and thats not something to be taken lightly. 

"Passion to help bring about excellence". - Nick Collins 28/06/12 (haha quoting myself!)

Went off on a slight tangent there! 

Sporttape- so with a hint of excitement when the tape was delivered, I cracked on with applying it to the lateral side of my right calf. Reasons being I had been struggling with the peroneous group externally rotating my lower leg, resulting in symptons of nerve/muscular impingement..... basically constant feeling of tightness with a slight yet uncomfortable electrical sensation. Once the tape was on I didnt really know what to expect,  if anything. Within the first 30 minutes the discomfort I had been feeling for just over a week started to disappear.....quite surprised! Now I was thinking 'placebo effect?' Knowing my body as I do and the amount of time my calfs were annoying me I discounted this. This could only mean that the tape worked!
In the end I kept that tape on for 3 days, including during a 10mile run, where I found the tape didn't weaken and didnt get affect by the movement and sweat.

Rocktape - again I was a little excited.....strange what can make you that way! A mate of mine described it as 'the boy gets a hardon over fancy celotape!'
For the record....I didn't and its not fancy celotape ha ha...thats not the excitement I was describing.
In terms of websites for these two, Rocktape leads the way in both function and content. The main reason being the application videos are a great tool to put the tape on correctly....I used this when applying Sporttape.
In the spirit of being a part of the UK I ordered rocktape covered in the Union Jack pattern...had to be done!
As my body is somewhat fragile at times, it just so happens I aggravated my lumbar spine on the right side.....just as well I had the tape ay. Actually had to get my brother to apply the tape on my back so that proves its easy to do!
The added support and pulling on the skin had the same results as sporttape, quite quickly the symptoms I had started to ease.

In terms of what brand of tape is better I am still undecided. So far they have both provided the support and relieving effects of discomfort that they say they do. Marketing of products is very clever but like I said to the Med director at rocktape , I will test and choose the best product that works best for me.
At present I cant separate the two brands - so far so good. Will continue to test them out.

I'd recommend you try both brands.
http://rocktape.net/
http://www.sporttape.co.uk/

Nick